Indigo Aviation, Sweden, reported the purchase of a 737-300 on lease to Delta and an MD-82 on lease to Spanair of Spain. The $33 million acquisition brings Indigo's portfolio to 30 aircraft on lease to 19 airlines in 15 countries.
National Transportation Safety Board, concerned about a July 31, 1997, incident in which controllers mistakenly cleared an Atlantic Southeast aircraft to descend below a safe operating altitude, has asked FAA to ensure that controllers' minimum-altitude charts for IFR flights comply with federal regulations and to tighten up the process for reviewing those charts.
Mercury Air Group, which provides petroleum products, cargo services and information technology, said revenue for the September quarter, the first of its fiscal year, was $52.6 million, down from $69.2 million a year earlier. The company attributed the decrease primarily to lower fuel prices and a lower volume of fuel sales. Net income was $1.7 million before an extraordinary charge of $153,000, compared with a loss of $2.2 million the previous year. Net income was $1.5 million.
Although flight simulation-based training is expected to grow, the market has just reached $1 billion and "may take about 15 or 20 more years to hit the double digits in the billions," according to a Frost&Sullivan study.The company identified 44 companies in the commercial sector and 42 in the military market.
America West posted record October traffic of 1.4 billion revenue passenger miles, up 3.5%, on 4.7% more capacity than in the same 1997 month. The load factor dropped 0.7 percentage points to 65.7%. So far this year, traffic rose 0.3% on 2.8% more capacity, lowering the load factor to 68%. The airline carried 14.9 million passengers in the first 10 months, down 3.2%.
Washington Dulles-based United Express affiliate Atlantic Coast Airlines flew 80.8 million revenue passenger miles last month, up 94.4% from the same year ago month. Oct. 1998 Oct. 1997 10 Mths 1998 10 Mths 1997 RPMs 80,830,000 41,589,000 645,491,000 340,083,000 ASMs 139,190,000 77,343,000 1,140,261,000 694,917,000 LF(%) 58.1 53.8 56.6 48.9
AlliedSignal's new suite of avionics has successfully begun flight tests on Boeing's in-development 717-200, the electronics company reported. Flights of the avionics test aircraft, part of the FAA certification program, are "guaranteed to provide average reliability of 30,000 hours - equivalent to 10 years of normal airline operations," said Frank Daly, AlliedSignal VP-air transport and regional business.
DOT yesterday extended through Dec. 5 the period for acting on United's complaint against European Commission restrictions on its alliances with Lufthansa and SAS. Meetings last month with the EC did not resolve issues, DOT said, but contacts will continue. (Docket OST-98-4030)
Air Canada's acquisition of Canadair Regional Jets was, in fact, an export sale funneled through a U.S. "Special Purpose Company"(SPC) as a "tax vehicle" and leased back to Air Canada, according to Brazil's "First Submission" to the World Trade Organization filed this week. That made the sale eligible for Export Development Corp. (EDC) benefits, including an equity infusion into the SPC of approximately 10% of the value of each aircraft, or $1.5 million to $2 million each, the filing said. Brazil and Canada are facing a WTO inquiry on export subsidies (DAILY, Oct.
British Midland has placed a firm order for 10 Embraer ERJ-145 aircraft and placed options for another five. The ERJ-145 orderbook - firm orders and options -now totals more than 400. Embraer has won more than 330 firm orders and options for the 37-passenger ERJ-135. Both are powered by the Rolls-Royce AE 3007 engine.
Ozark Air Lines will fly again in mid- to late 1999, according to Columbia, Mo., interests that acquired the name from TWA, which purchased the original Ozark in 1986. Owner William Stricker and Chief Executive John Ellis plan to obtain two Fairchild Dornier 328JETS to operate from Columbia to Chicago, Kansas City and possibly Dallas. Ellis, founder of Battle Creek, Mich.-based Kal-Aero, said people are driving to St. Louis rather than flying TWExpress Trans States, with eight flights daily, and that air service "is clearly a hot button in the area.
Seven of the 41 newly elected House members have expressed interest in an assignment on the House Transportation Committee, six of them listing Transportation with other potential assignments.
Milan's new Malpensa Airport, which opened chaotically last month (DAILY, Oct. 27), still is experiencing problems in several areas, affecting both passengers and airlines. United reports multiple technical problems, air traffic control delays, aircraft loading bridge snafus and labor troubles, leading to delays and cancellations.
Air Canada and its regional carriers are expanding electronic ticketing to more than 20 U.S. points, encompassing nearly their entire North American network. Air Canada introduced e-ticketing in 1995 and expanded it to the U.S. in 1996.
Abacus International, the Asia/Pacific-based global distribution system, offers electronic ticketing to travel agents in Australia. Abacus plans to extend e-ticketing to its partner carriers in Hong Kong and Singapore by the first half of next year. Abacus last month started a billing and settlement plan at an agency in Auckland, New Zealand. BSP enables travel agents to issue tickets on behalf of airlines and settle accounts automatically through a clearing bank.
Poor cash flow could lead the Malaysian government to bail out Malaysia Airlines to prevent it from suffering the same fate as Philippines Airlines. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed said the government is aware of MAS's poor financial situation and is ready to help out. "One thing is for sure, under no circumstances will the government allow MAS to be grounded," Mahathir said in Kuala Lumpur. He declined, however, to give details of MAS's financial situation.
Turkish Airlines took delivery yesterday of its first six 737-800s. All six left Seattle one-half hour apart. THY ordered 49 of the aircraft in October 1997. Each will seat 20 passengers in business class and 135 in coach.
Argentina and Brazil are expected to be the first Latin American nations to mandate the use of traffic alert and collision avoidance systems by their airlines, Honeywell marketing official John Khoury says.
Northwest said it will add a Saturday departure to its Detroit-Nagoya nonstop on Dec. 3, and the flight will continue to Manila. The airline, which will operate the transpacific route three times a week, said Saturday is the peak departure day for business travel to Asia. On Dec. 4, Northwest will operate the first Nagoya-Manila flight, adding to its 14 weekly direct flights from the U.S. to Manila. Northwest will postpone the start of its three-times-weekly Kuala Lumpur-Osaka service from Jan. 16 to Feb.
LanChile said its third quarter profits fell to US$2.1 million, which, while lower than in the prior-year period, kept the carrier in the black. For the nine months ending Sept. 30, LanChile earned $19.9 million, a sharp drop from the $41 million net profit for the first three quarters of 1997. The carrier attributed the lower results to the slower Asian economy, which pulled down LanChile's regional economy, and increased competition on key international routes. The airline will report consolidated earnings later this month.
Every major figure in congressional aviation politics returns to Washington next year, setting the stage for a resumption of funding, capacity and competition disputes along familiar lines. Aviation leaders, including House Transportation Committee Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) and his aviation subcommittee chairman, John Duncan (R-Tenn.), have proclaimed 1999 the "year of aviation," potentially raising the visibility of aviation disputes in national politics.
The fiscal 1999 FAA appropriations compromise that produced $1.95 billion for Airport Improvement Program grants provides guidance on seven specific projects (DAILY, Oct. 16). Splitting the difference between the House's $1.8 billion and the Senate's $2.1 billion, the appropriations conferees directed FAA to give "priority consideration" to grant applications for projects listed in the House and Senate appropriations reports and the following:
KLM's operating profits for the first half of fiscal 1998 fell 15% to 638 million guilders (US$341 million), as the carrier felt the effects of weakened Asian markets and a pilots strike at alliance partner Northwest. KLM's operating profits were 50 million Dutch guilders lower as a result of the strike. The results also include 100% of Martinair, which is being integrated into KLM, and the costs of merging the two also had an effect on profits. Revenue rose 2.2% to NLG7.14 billion ($3.82 billion). Net income was cut nearly in half to NLG572 million ($306 million).
Worldspan has entered the Japanese market with the introduction of Worldspan Japan, as part of the company's plans for global expansion, especially into the Asia/Pacific market. To serve the market, Worldspan also announced that a Bank Settlement Plan ticketing procedure has been approved. Worldspan Japan plans to grow its customer base by giving Japanese travel agents connectivity to its global mainframe system, which provides travel distribution information, booking and transaction processing to travel companies in more than 50 countries.
